One of th best and most comprehensive stories I've read on this issue. Nifong's judgement was stunning the flawed from the outset. For a prosecutor he didn't exercise a single ounce of skepticism about his "victim's" story or even attempt to discern the facts before charging. He went straight to a malleable grand jury. His victim's story began changing almost immediately and that should have alerted Nifong to the problem.
Sorry but early early on Nifong knew what this was. He had enough skepticism about Mangum's story that he refused to hear exculpatory evidence thinking that would help him technically avoid violating one NC Bar cannon of ethics and then went to a Grand Jury so it was them not Nifong technically doing the charging. He knew what he had, a ticket to election. He was not going to let the facts get in the way of his election.